


The First Word I Can Never Say (Not to You Anyway)

by DarkPoisonousLove



Series: The Poison of a Gift [1]
Category: Winx Club
Genre: (also this is TDC canon), (look if i was reistant to poison i would eat poison too), (that is also TDC canon for the characters Griffin and Valtor stand in for here), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Three Dark Crowns Fusion, Angst, F/M, Falling In Love, Forbidden Love, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Love, One Shot, Poison, Poison consumption, Sort Of, also there's a slight mystery i've left there in case i decide to continue this, as in this is set in the world of Three Dark Crowns, but can you guess it?, but it is Winx characters through and through, eating a scorpion, more like expand it since this is a, there's something barely hinted at
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:34:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23935423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkPoisonousLove/pseuds/DarkPoisonousLove
Summary: Griffin and Valtor have always preferred actions over words and what they did with each other when they met did not left them willing to share their feelings. Twenty years later there are still unspoken things between them that do not need to be said to be understood but will still poison them anyway.
Relationships: Griffin/Valtor | Baltor (Winx Club)
Series: The Poison of a Gift [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1729759
Comments: 2





	The First Word I Can Never Say (Not to You Anyway)

**Author's Note:**

> I am totally obsessed with the Three Dark Crowns series and it kept me up for 2 hours last night as I was trying to assign roles to all the Winx characters if they were living in that world. Here is a glimpse of it that barely shows for my work but I may actually decide to write more once I piece the whole thing together. This is just the Valtor and Griffin storyline that started all of it. I absolutely had to write this when I realized how well Griffin would land herself to a poisoner.
> 
> Infinity by Jaymes Young is giving me the same vibes as this fic so you can check it out if you want.
> 
> (Check the end for more notes on the setting if you need something cleared up.)

She was special. She had always been.

She'd been his first taste of the Island. Of its magic. Of its poison. All very seductive to a mainlander like him with a strong heart, strong stomach and even stronger ambition.

He'd first seen her at a party but he could have never suspected how strong the effects of the little vial she'd been emptying into her glass of wine would be.

"Not strong enough for you?" he'd asked, thinking he knew what he was getting himself into. Alcohol was something that he had an expertise in so it had been a good assumption. But assumptions didn't cut it at the Island when it was a place that demanded blood to live. He'd almost asked for his own death without knowing it. Sometimes he thought he had. For he could never join her, yet he'd done so anyway.

"I do not care for untainted food and drinks," she'd said only, her eyes on his, expectant. He'd been supposed to know how to continue the conversation and not bring it to a halt. She had made him a fish out of water like no other woman could have ever dreamed of doing. But he'd never stood before a woman of the Island before. She'd been the first.

"Untainted?" he'd asked, watching the look in her golden eyes change to recognition. In them he was the mainlander now, all out of place, and while he'd always been the outsider even on the Main Land and he'd had an excuse for it at least at the present situation, it had still felt dreadful. To know he didn't fit in her world like he'd never had anywhere but he'd learned to hide it. Yet, she'd exposed his secret in a matter of seconds, her eyes seeing through him like she'd just burned the outer layers out of the way to get to his core.

"Unpoisoned," she'd explained, stashing the small vial back under her belt where she must have been hiding it. A good place to hide a treasure or a weapon and he'd supposed the glass container could count as either depending on the situation. And on whether she was telling the truth or not.

He'd watched her lift the glass to her lips slowly as if to counter the frantic beating of his heart as his mind had raced in uncertainty like it'd never done before in the company of a lady.

He'd heard the tales of the Island and the gifts spread through its people – elementals and naturalists, war-gifted and poisoners. It all sounded like myths or horror stories to the people on the Main Land, especially when it came to the triplet queens sharing a cradle that bound them to murdering each other. He'd known it to be true–all of it–yet, he still hadn't been able to take his eyes off her lips dipping into the poisoned wine even if he'd known she'd only been so brave since she'd known it couldn't hurt her. She'd been born with it and the gift was hers to flaunt in other people's faces. Giftless people. Like him.

"You don't believe me?" she'd asked when he'd kept staring at her as if he'd never seen a woman before. He hadn't. Not like her. She'd been the first. "Here," she'd handed him the glass, "hold it for me," she'd said before he could have spilled the protests his panic bore to life but her smugness had let him know she'd already soaked them all up and it'd been satisfying enough for her to show him some mercy.

He'd taken the glass, free of his fear but burdened by the knowledge it'd been there. He was not like her and for the first time the story of his life had looked more like a tragedy of self-pity instead of the fueling spite for his ambition.

She'd taken off her brooch, the one that he hadn't noticed had actually been a scorpion that had been still somewhat alive with legs writhing helplessly as it'd been pinned to the shoulder strap of her dress, and had broken off the tail. She'd popped it into her mouth and chewed it with pleasure like it'd been a delicacy and not a small dose of death. Well, to her it certainly had been.

He'd watched entranced when the spectacle had been so intoxicating. He'd had to have been disgusted by it–especially when she'd been holding the rest of the dead scorpion's body in her hand still–but he hadn't been able to find it in himself to look away from the strength of her gift, how it kept her alive when she'd just taken a bite of death. He'd never seen anything like it and the magic of the Island had gotten to his head making him wish he'd had it as well. Especially when the embodiment of it had been so enchanting – all luscious purple hair going on for days and pale skin contrasting with the red of her dress like snow soaked with blood.

"I don't normally consume my accessories but a demonstration is always worth a ruined outfit," she'd said as she'd taken her glass back from him to wash down any remaining pieces from the wrapper of her treat by adding some nectar to it that'd almost turned him green. Green with envy that he wasn't like her so that he could have tasted the lack of mortality dripping from her lips.

All he had were the shadows of his dreams. Always three, always burning into his mind with their soullessness that scorched harder than the holes of molten lava that could never pass for eyes. He'd chalk them up to illusions of his ambition-poisoned mind although that made no sense considering their separate existence. He'd always been a one-track being so why have three beacons of his aspiration? It had been a mystery he'd demeaned on purpose when he hadn't been familiar with the depths of magic. But she'd been right there with her taste for poison to guide him in the core of it and his own being.

"Perhaps it can be saved." He'd taken out the circle shaped box out of his inner pocket to present her with the brooch inside. "Not so suited to your tastes perhaps but will make for a good accent."

She'd taken the golden dragon with eyes of crystal that could as well have been ice, her dead scorpion tossed away where it would scare the servants when everything was over and they'd have to make the remains of the party disappear to leave the hall inviting for another one. "You'll have to find me when the party is over if you want this back," she'd said as she'd put the piece of jewelry on and it had sat on her dress like it'd been made to adorn it.

It'd been supposed to be a gift but it'd worked better as an offering to her gift anyway. He could have had another trinket made for his purposes at any time but the exquisite piece of art had found its rightful place on her body completing her outfit after she'd been so generous to sacrifice a piece of it to give him the most memorable moment of his life.

"Of course, I'll find you," he'd said as he'd pocketed his empty box. He'd need it to store his precious jewelry once she returned it to him with as many traces of her on it left as he could hope for.

She'd smiled at him like she'd just caught her prey and had disappeared from the niche where they'd been hidden from prying eyes only for him to not see her until the end of the party.

"Here's your dragon, Valtor," she'd left it in his hand, her fingers slithering over his skin so fast they hadn't been able to distract him from the fact she'd found his name on her own. It was rather impressive when he was an unknown phantom of the Main Land among the islanders.

"Thank you for taking care of it," he'd said as he'd put it on his lapel, the box seeming too harsh a confinement for it after it'd been weighing on her body. "And I have something for you, too, Griffin."

She hadn't looked impressed and there'd been no reason for her to have been, really.

Everyone knew Griffin Sylvane, head of the Sylvane family and the Black Council despite the fact that Queen Luna that the Sylvanes had been fostering had died to her sister. Queen Marion had retaliated for being forced to kill her sister and had chosen to continue the reign of the poisoners even with an elemental queen on the throne. A bold move but she'd had nothing to be afraid of when they couldn't dispose of her before she'd given birth to the next set of triplets and after that she'd be old news anyway so she'd had nothing to lose except for the support of the family that had raised her only to have her betray them but that had hardly mattered when she was the Queen Crowned.

Valtor had presented Griffin with the small vial of deadly nightshade tincture that had earned her graces like his research hadn't when it had been nothing more than asking the first servant he'd seen who she was and immediately getting the answer.

"Belladonna." She'd smiled as she'd taken it from him and had seemed too enamored with the gift to notice his momentary pause as he'd never heard that name of the plant but she was the poisoner so he could trust her with that. "Unfortunately, there's nothing left to consume it with," she'd said, the sparks in her eyes certainly suggestive and burning away any regret there might have appeared to be.

"I have whiskey I bought from the Island in my hotel," Valtor had offered, readily inviting danger into his bed even though he'd just given her her greatest weapon. He'd be a fool to think she wouldn't use it but who they were had been enough to provide comfort and security to the idea when she had a gift and he didn't.

"I can't be seen joining you in your quarters," Griffin had said. A challenge and not rejection. A challenge that he would have been up to any day of the week for any woman. He certainly hadn't thought it'd be for someone special.

She'd been the first. Of course, he hadn't tried to fool himself that he would keep to his vows like a good husband would but he'd thought he'd be faithful to his bride more than barely a few months. And he would have been. If he hadn't met Griffin. He would have resisted another woman but her he'd needed to have even when she'd been poison personified.

That had been proven even more true if he hadn't been convinced already as he'd watched her add the whole tincture to her whiskey and then drink it slowly, savoring the taste of death entering her veins only to stay there like it was home. She'd looked so powerful as she'd finished all of it and had drank some water before kissing him to wash the threat to his life away. She'd looked invincible. And he'd hated the disillusion that he'd entered along with her embrace.

She hadn't been special. She'd trembled just like every other woman he'd bedded, had trembled like his heart in its outraged state of waking up from her spell. And it had only shaken more when he'd realized he couldn't get out of it all the way. Because she was special. Special to him.

She'd been the first. The first to pull him away from his wife. The first to show him the magic of the Island. The first to help him understand himself.

His shadows were the parental figures he'd modeled himself after. He'd had to take example from somewhere when he hadn't had his own parents to teach him the intricacies of life and he'd borrowed from the entities in his head letting them live through him in exchange. He had the temperament of a storm to push him through life with the strength of his anger of which he had plenty to spare on everyone and everything. He was a master of manipulations and illusions, a social chameleon instead of the street rat he'd been pegged for, and his skillful deceptions had gotten him from the gutter to the top of the food chain and to the cursed Island that had been supposed to be the peak of his efforts and not a poisonous dish with the potential to bring him down. He'd made his heart harbor the cold of the heartless monsters in his visions and that was the only thing that could stop the toxins from spreading until he could make his escape.

Griffin had been asleep and so easy to kill when her guard had been down that he'd almost wanted to do it to get his revenge against her for leading him to believe she was the most powerful woman he'd ever met. He could have done it and that had been why he hadn't. There hadn't been any challenge in it. Only ruin to come after the deed.

He'd barely managed to pick his pants up when his progress had been stopped by the golden of her eyes burning in the night.

"Where are you going?" she'd asked, her voice calm instead of alerted but not drowsy even if he'd known she'd been asleep. That had been a fact but her vulnerability had started to seem more of an illusion and he'd had to hate her for tightening her spell around him once again. But he hadn't been able to when she'd been dragging the image of a challenge out of his mind to merge with.

"I'll have to hunt down another present for my wife," he'd said as he'd moved to get dressed as if his fascination with her hadn't been growing when she'd met the blow with resolve of stone and hadn't let it move her even a tad as if she was resistant to the lightning bolt of his words as well as to the belladonna's poison. "I can't risk giving her something that Griffin Sylvane was seen wearing by half of the Island's high society, now can I?" He'd given a smile–one that would have worked on a mainlander girl but here on the Island held no more power than a giftless person struggling against the poison claiming every inch of their body–while he'd hoped that she'd ask him for the dragon brooch as much as he'd hoped that she wouldn't when he would've gladly given it to her but he'd wanted to keep it, too. Stashed away in the depths of a forgotten box in the attic like the memories of her skin on his would be buried in the very back of his mind where they'd be safe from the world and he'd be safe from them.

"I'll bid you good luck with that right after you get me out of here," Griffin had said and the cold of her gaze had been flaming with so much power she could have burned her way out of the hotel with no one having the slightest chance to notice her face through the smoke filling the space around to the brim. She could have gotten out of there on her own and they'd both been well aware of that. But she was hard as ice. She was just like him despite the softness she'd displayed earlier.

He watched her rummage through the bar no less than twenty years after that first night when he'd first had a taste of her. She'd become like a drug – less satisfying every time he had a dose and leaving him wanting more and more. He'd only needed a look to become addicted and he'd found himself unable to leave. Not the way he'd had to in order to live peacefully. But where was the challenge in that?

"Need help to choose?" he asked as if he were home. Not that Greavesdrake Manor was unfamiliar to him after the years he'd spent coming and going since the first time he'd visited, though that was a bittersweet memory.

Griffin had been seriously ill and had been confined to her bed for months upon months. It'd made the people talk, cursing Queen Marion for leaving the Council in the hands of the poisoners when the Goddess clearly disagreed. Some had even been scared that Griffin had been just the first one struck by a plague that would ruin the whole Island if the Goddess refused to send the next triplets and let it die without the blood of the Queens to feed it.

Griffin had recovered eventually and had met him in the manor strong and healthy as always when the illness had finally drained out of her system. She'd been sipping poison again and Queen Marion had given birth to her triplets less than three years later before departing for the Main Land with her king-consort – Oritel.

Valtor had never gotten the chance to meet them even if they lived on his territory now but he'd seen Queen Stella grow through the years under Griffin's care. From the shadows, of course, as no one was to know about their ties if they wanted their alliance to give results and his son, who'd come just a year before the triplets, to be Queen Stella's king-consort once she disposed of her sisters.

"There hasn't been order or quality alcohol in this bar since Ediltrude left," Griffin murmured even though the shelves were only graced by the finest drinks the Island had to offer.

Valtor hadn't met Ediltrude–or her twin – Zarathustra–either since she'd departed on a task Griffin had given them right before he'd first arrived at Greavesdrake Manor. Griffin wouldn't tell him where she'd sent the twins even though she'd mention them quite often. And she kept her cool, too, and avoided any questions with the finesse of a snake striking its prey.

It made her current state disconcerting. The Ascension Year when one queen would rise and the other two would fall was just a few months away and she was restless like he'd never seen her. Not even after she'd battled for her own life. But things were different when Queen Stella was concerned. Griffin was as serious and fierce as if it were her own daughter and it almost made him regret that she'd never had a child of her own. Even if that meant that she might have gotten married. It wasn't like that was of any significance when it came to their relations.

"I'd offer a distraction from your ill-stocked bar but we can't lose our heads now," he said, drawing all of her attention on him the way he liked it. Even at the moments when he could hear her wondering just what poison would be best to do him in.

"That might be a danger to you but do not impose it on me as well just because you don't want to be alone in your weakness," Griffin said without turning to him as she finally picked a bottle and left it on top of the bar as she reached for a glass, too, her movements calm and unhurried.

The composure was coming out now that she was on a battlefield she knew how to navigate. There was no risk of losing against him as she'd proven that first night and she could relax and stop despising her alcohol for containing poison that could get her problems solved just as well as it could kill Queen Stella when her poisoner gift hadn't developed yet and what resistance she'd gained had been earned slowly and painstakingly through poisonings year after year until her organism had started tolerating the substances enough to live through them. Not enough to make her a poisoner queen, though.

"My apologies," Valtor said as he drank from the flask he was carrying with him only to keep up appearances. It wasn't that he didn't trust Griffin not to poison him. It was that he didn't want her to know he trusted her with his life when she was known for her ability to kill. It said a bit too much than either of them needed to hear. "Losing our hearts then?" he offered another blow knowing that the pain would distract her from what was truly sore. And she would recover anyway since she knew how to heal as well, not just to kill.

He'd never met anyone else who knew plants–all kinds and not just the poisonous ones–quite the way she did. It was like a whole another kind of magic that she'd accomplished herself but he tended not to dwell on that too much lest she turned out to be right about what dangers were out for his head and lurking.

"When have our hearts ever played a part in our partnership?" she asked as she poured herself a drink, the smooth liquid the perfect accompaniment for her voice. Especially once the poison glided down her throat and reminded her that she was tough to kill and that could be enough to save Queen Stella if they all played their cards right. Their partnership could give them all exactly what they wanted if he could keep out of the temptation to poke at her until she spilled her venom over him but he had too much faith in their loyalties to be worried about that.

"You don't expect me to fall for that, do you?" he asked as he let his eyes slide over her figure slowly and meticulously so that she could feel his gaze on her, could feel him drinking in every part of the absolute testament of strength that she was even when her heart was shaking like there was an earthquake Queen Bloom had summoned to bury all the Sylvane poisoners and her sister even if it was a few months too early for that.

"You don't expect me to fall for you, do you?" Griffin asked as she turned around and held his gaze like her hand held her glass steadily while she lifted the heavy poison to ingest it like it was the sweetest syrup, her eyes ablaze. She was flaming again like that first night and he waited for her to lower her glass before he'd lift his own as it seemed somewhat inappropriate for them to drink together when they had different tastes and the stakes in case of failure were very different for the two of them. Good thing she was infallible.

"I don't want you to fall, Griffin."

It was curious how a lie could be the truth, too. He wanted her falling, wanted her tumbling down an endless chasm with no bottom for her to crash in when he couldn't catch her but he couldn't stand the thought of her steady on her feet in his presence either, even when she had to be. She couldn't fall from grace like her mother had when Queen Luna had died. No one would let Queen Marion's act of rebellion happen again and the poisoners would lose the Black Council which would land in the lap of the elementals or the naturalists respectively and whether or not the Sylvanes' family status would suffer would be of no consequence when Griffin would lose her mind over Queen Stella's death. She was still mourning Queen Luna who'd been like a little sister. She could not lose the one she'd raised as her child, too.

"I don't think lies will strengthen our alliance, Valtor," Griffin said, a smirk playing on her face when she knew she'd read into him and she was once again the woman he'd met. Confident and secure in her position as a half goddess who could not be killed by the deadliest of substances. Nor by a wound in the heart were he to deliver one.

"I can say the same to you, Griffin," he said as he held her gaze when that at least he could allow himself. There was no harm done in being enchanted by gold like so many others were. Even if his infatuation had nothing to do with wealth. That was what he had his wife for.

"Don't make this more than it is," Griffin said, a sharpness to her voice now that was much like the sting of a scorpion when it was desperately trying to protect itself from being eaten. It looked like she believed he was capable of doing that to her even when she knew he couldn't survive all that poison in her system. He would've swallowed her whole long ago if he could.

"Or perhaps you're afraid it is less than you're making it out to be?" he asked, the words resisting like he was trying to push them out into a pool of acid but it was the gold of her eyes that would churn them to crisp. "Perhaps you're afraid I might be in love with my wife?" he said, his whole body protesting and trying to keep him still–no talking and no breathing–to keep her from striking but it was far too late for that. She was ready to pounce and he was ready to be mesmerized.

Griffin chuckled. "Because marriage is all about love," she said. "Especially yours," she added quickly, her glass in her hand and far away from her lips where it could drown the words. She wanted him to hear them well and feel them reaching through his skin and muscles to inject their venom right into his heart.

He'd never wanted to be a trophy husband but it had been the only thing that could have saved him from the hole his life had been so love had taken a backseat to necessity. And then love had become necessity when it had been the thing that could chase away the monsters in his head. Not far enough away to make him fall apart when he was made of their parts but it still kept them away to thaw his heart enough to touch it and let him feel it. He'd claimed to hate it in the beginning but he'd barely needed any of his brain capacity to tell he'd been lying and there was no way Griffin didn't know all of that even if her focus had been on raising her Queen.

"Is that why you never married?" he asked and somehow his mind was equating his marriage to the reason she hadn't married like he was the only man in the world. It was enough to be the only man in her world.

"I never married because I had a Queen to raise," she snapped, the sound startling him when he realized he'd cracked the ice of her heart. It hadn't even been supposed to be there and he should have noticed he'd forced her into her armor long before he'd managed to break it. "I had a child to take care of," she said as she left her glass on the bar behind her. It was serious if she was abandoning her poison. "Something you know nothing about," she let her words slam into him the way she'd most certainly wanted to slam her glass in the surface of the bar but that would've left her outburst on display when a servant would have had to clean it up. No one would see if he bled when he was just a shadow in her life that would die if it couldn't remain hidden.

She was angry at him and he couldn't tell why. She'd made it perfectly clear that she despised the way he treated his son and his excuse that Riven was better off with his mother looking after him and minimal involvement from him hadn't worked even when it was the truth. She despised his refusal to get over himself and learn how to be a father when she'd done it even when her child had been threatened from the start and even if they lost, Riven would be safe and sound, nothing but Valtor's ambitions getting trampled to death. But there was something else hidden in the outrage bursting from her eyes that he couldn't name. Too bad that words were enemies they had to manipulate carefully and he couldn't just ask openly.

"So you are afraid of distraction?" he asked instead, pushing more.

Perhaps he could get her to erupt and tell him what it was that he'd done. Even if she'd made it clear that she'd prefer to explode into small pieces before baring her heart to him. Maybe she wouldn't have had such an aversion to the thought if he hadn't tried to leave her behind that first night, if he'd been honest with her from the start. But it was too late to fix what he'd broken now. He could only break her into more pieces until the dust he crushed her into wrote out what she wouldn't tell him or he cut himself and bled to death.

"Lest you end up like dear old mom? Without even a body to bury when it is thrown in the Breccia Domain?" he asked as if he wanted her to throw him in there. But it was reserved just for the dead queens so he was safe from that even if she could still kill him. He knew she wouldn't. Just like he knew that she would.

"How dare you?" Griffin said, her voice barely a whisper when she knew that would hurt him more as she hid herself behind the fragile sound. It did not conceal any of her outrage but was enough to erase him when the light couldn't find her to let her cast a shadow he could shelter himself in.

Because of his heart. He dared because of his heart that had once been cold and had been melting ever since he'd met her but only when she was around. What was left after the ice could hardly be enough for either of them, though.

"I cannot wait for the day when I don't have to rely on you for anything," Griffin hissed at him like she was a snake when he knew that wasn't true. She could be a poison but she wasn't a snake. She was a flower that he would destroy if he kept forcing her to freeze herself but he couldn't be more cautious when he couldn't imagine her dying. She couldn't be a temporary presence when the feelings she awoke in him hadn't let up even for a moment after he'd met her.

"Good luck living through infinity, Griffin," he said as he rose from his chair and stood in front of her, towering over her but that didn't matter when he knew he wouldn't make it long enough to stop needing her. Not when she'd shown him exactly who he was and had left him in a position where he needed to be everything else but himself if he wanted to have her. "Because time is a poison even you're not immune to." And so was he.

He was her poison just like she was his and while he'd never had a chance of surviving that encounter, she was dying from the very thing she loved to consume in copious amounts.

It turned out that she wasn't invincible, after all. And somehow, instead of appalling him, that only drew him closer to her. As close as he needed to be for a kiss. Even if she refused to give it to him after the words he'd spat in her face.

**Author's Note:**

> The country in which Three Dark Crowns is set (does it even have a name?) consists of Fennbirn (aka the Island) and the Main Land which was not really described at all. Mainlanders don't like the islanders and vice versa. There is not much contact between the two parts of the country and they aren't quite familiar with how life goes in the other part. Also, the Island has magic aka the different gifts.
> 
> Elementals control the elements (such as water, earth, lightning, fire, wind as far as I can remember being mentioned in the book). Naturalists can control animals and make plants grow plus, they also have familiars that are normally small animals but the stronger the naturalist, the bigger the animal (the biggest that appears in the book is a mountain cat). War-gifted have gifts connected to war (it was not truly explained in the book or I missed something but yeah, they're good at war). Poisoners are resistant to poisons aka can ingest them (and not only, they can also have them rubbed in their skin or injected in their veins) without it harming them one bit (and most of the poisoners that appear in the book are said to consume "tainted" = poisoned food and drinks on the regular as they don't like them untainted). Poisoners are, naturally, good at assorting poisons and, well, murdering people but they can also be healers since the difference between poison and medicine is the dosage, however, it was said in the book that they have forgotten about the good side of their gift meaning that they don't use it anymore (I might have tweaked that in the fic but hey, I reserve my creator freedom rights). There is also the gift of The Sight but that one is trickier as it is said to make the people who have it paranoid and drive them crazy. Generally, the Sight gift is the rarest. (And in the second book there is the legion curse aka one person having two gifts which, despite being weak, are said to drive the person mad.)
> 
> That sends us to the Queens. Every generation of Queens are identical triplets who are incarnations of the Goddess (who was not explained; she's just the Goddess aka the ultimate power on the Island and that is that on that). Each of them has a gift and their mother aka the previous Queen (since Queens are said to not have a mother and father but to be sent to the Island by the Goddess) knows what that gift is. If a triplet has the Sight gift, they are drowned on the spot because they don't make for good Queens. The triplets are sent to the Black Cottage where they live until they are six. After that, they are sent to foster families of corresponding gift (so in my case here Stella who is said to be a poisoner was sent to the Sylvanes who are the most prominent poisoner family) until they become sixteen. Then there are some details that I'll skip over since they are not mentioned here and after that starts the Ascension Year during which the three Queens are allowed to kill each other until there is only one left who will become the Queen Crowned. She marries one of the suitors (which is what Riven is) who all come from the Main Land and he becomes her king-consort (like Oritel is for Marion). She rules until she has her triplets and then she and the king-consort depart for the Main Land.
> 
> In the sixteen (well, actually seventeen when you add the Ascension Year) years between the birth of the triplets and the crowning of the new Queen it is the Black Council that rules. The head of the Black Council is chosen by the queen and it is usually someone from the family that raised the queen. Then the head chooses the rest of the Council to a total of 9 members. A poisoner queen means a majority of poisoners in the Black Council, a naturalist queen = a majority of naturalists and so on.
> 
> Greavesdrake Manor is the home of the head of the Black Council (from what I gathered) and is found in the capital - Indrid Down (where the castle also is but let's not dig there rn). It is currently inhabited by the poisoners (both in the fic and in the book) but that may change depending on who the next Queen Crowned will be. The poisoner queen (aka Stella here) is being raised in Greavesdrake Manor instead of Prynn which is the poisoners city since the Black Coouncil is in the hands of the poisoners (aka the Sylvanes) and it is seated in the capital city. The elemental queen (so Bloom here) is raised in Rolanth - the city of the elementals. And the naturalist queen (the third sister who I've picked but won't reveal just yet in case of changes) is raised in Wolf Spring - the city of the naturalists. There's also Bastian - the Warrior's city.
> 
> The Breccia Domain is a deep (considered bottomless) chasm where the bodies of the fallen queens are thrown after they die in the Ascension Year. It is called "the heart of the island" and it is a sacred place. It is said that the blood of the fallen queens feeds the Island.
> 
> That about covers everything mentioned here.


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